In testing wireless communications network equipment, it is often desirable to decode uplink data for debugging and other analysis purposes. In long term evolution (LTE) wireless communications networks, uplink data refers to data transmitted from the user equipment (UE) to the eNode B. Downlink data refers to data transmitted from the eNode B to the UE. When an eNode B transmits downlink data to the UE, the UE decodes the downlink data and uses the decoded control data to form uplink data that is transmitted to the eNode B. When testing wireless communications network equipment, such as an eNode B, a device referred to as a multi-UE simulator can be used to simulate multiple UEs and to transmit uplink data to the eNode B. The simulator receives downlink data from the eNode B, processes the downlink data, forms uplink data, and transmits the uplink data to the eNode B.
In order to debug the uplink data, it is necessary to decode the uplink data. For example, if an application engineer testing an eNode B with a multi-UE simulator determines that uplink data is not decoding correctly, the problem could reside with the eNode B, the multi-UE simulator, or both. In order to debug the problem for the uplink data, the downlink data must first be decoded, and the uplink data must then be decoded from the downlink data. To decode the uplink and downlink data, the application engineer may transmit a file containing megabytes or even gigabytes containing uplink and downlink data to a lab for testing. The lab may decode the downlink data in the file and use the downlink data to decode the uplink data. The process of decoding the downlink data each time the uplink data is required to be analyzed is time consuming. This scenario gets even worse if the user wants to keep re-analyzing the uplink data for multiple times. Further, storing a complete set of downlink data simply for the purpose of uplink data decoding increases the memory requirements of uplink data analysis systems.
Accordingly, in light of these difficulties, there exists a need for methods, systems, and computer readable media for rapid decoding of wireless communications network uplink data.